“"I always understood a trafficking victim to b someone who was lured, lied to or otherwise coerced (thus making the sex rape) into their situation." And see, here, we have the problem - that’s not the definition that the FBI is using. And also, they use somewhat more broad understandings of coercion than most people immediately think of when of coercion. Like, if you just see migrants as having no agency, then any undocumented workers in the sex trade are now trafficking victims to be saved (and "saved" meaning, involuntarily detained, arrested, and very possible deported), and not a population that deserves workers’ rights, or immigrants’ rights. If you define "economic coercion" as trafficking, then anyone who does it because they can make more money and have more flexible hours than working at Walmart is now a trafficking victim, instead of, again a group that deserves workers’ rights. (Never mind that we’d never see people who work at Walmart as trafficking victims, even though it’s pretty rare that people work there because they just love it so much.) If you say that minors can’t consent to selling sex (even if they’re old enough to consent to sex itself), then you don’t have to look at how the child welfare system is failing abused children, or at how common it is for queer and trans youth to get kicked out of their home, and then, trafficking victims to be saved (frequently by arresting them, and/or sending them back to where they escaped from), and children don’t need *rights*.”
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Super Bowl Sex Trafficking Ring Busted By the FBI
HermioneStranger in a comment on jezebel. Link goes directly to comment in question.
(via sjows)